"As Sure as God" in pictures

I am so so proud of these ladies for the amazing and inspiring job they did.

It was a real treat, actually, to WATCH a show - particularly a movement based show - that I had not been a real part of creating.  Seeing movement narrative from an outsider's perspective gave me all kinds of ideas and inspiration for the show I hope to write and produce in the next year or so.

Expect great things forthcoming from Revive the Red Tent!

 

Photo Credit : the so talented and always amazing Rhi Johnson, my darlingingest sister....

"As Sure as God Made the Little Green Apples"

~Opens tonight~

This is the show for which RTRT recieved a grant to develop it.

We were one of 5 Alaska non-profits to recieve a Pride Foundation grant this year.

The play explores the experience of being a lesbian in Fairbanks through movement and text.  My breda - and RTRT president and co-founder - developed the script based on interviews she conducted with local ladies.  I'm so proud of her. 

We're in the paper!

We were featured in the Latitude 65!  Which is the Arts and Entertainment/Events section of the local newspaper. 

I realized the other day that I have a very skewed perception of the newspaper.  Skewed away from how I think most people probably percieve it.  As a performer I have been featured - my photograph - on the cover of the Latitude section or the UAF newspaper, I think four times?  And (almost) everytime I do a show, there's a picture or a quote or a reference to me in the paper. 

 

This particular publicity, though, is really exciting.  And touching.  And heartening!  The last two shows that Revive the Red Tent produced were not mentioned in the paper.  If I recall, they wouldn't even put us in the listing of community events calendar for the week.  Those two shows were Eve Ensler's "A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer," and "Coming Out: A Work in Progress" which was a collection of shorts, some locally written and some professional.  Those two shows deal with, in the first - the experience of women in the world and in our culture, and in the second - the experience of LGBTQ.  In the second case, it became pretty clear, if it was never stated outright, in the course of trying to contact the newspaper that they weren't covering our show BECAUSE it was an LGBTQ show.  That experience both angered and saddened me.

 

BUT! Our newspaper has a new journalist/editor lady who is covering the arts, and she is a very lovely person.  And is personable and engaging when she interviews, and writes lovely peieces about art in our community.

 

 

‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’ addresses the physical and figurative

by Suzanna Caldwell / scaldwell@newsminer.com Fairbanks Daily News Miner

 

 

FAIRBANKS - Relationships are complicated and often not easy. Sometimes their scars might not be physical, but they exist.

“Gruesome Playground Injuries” explores those literal and figurative scars. The twoperson, one-act, no-intermission play follows the lives of Kayleen and Doug, played by Anna Gagne-Hawes and Kevin Zayas, two friends who are “exquisitely selfish,” according to director Jasmine Johnson-Kennedy.

“It’s a very intense relationship,” Johnson-Kennedy said.

“One or the other is severely hurting, and they need the other to help them heal. (Their relationship) is an intense lack of compassion.”

Playwright Rajiv Joseph wrote the play before his Pulitzer Prize nomination for “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” in 2010. In “Gruesome Playground Injuries,” the two characters age from 8 to 38 in a series on non-linear vignettes.

Along the way, the characters deal with various physical maladies — missing eyes and limbs — or still physical but less maiming injuries — mental illness, alcoholism.

In dealing with their injuries, the two form a relationship that’s based in love but is not romantic, Johnson-Kennedy said.

“(Romance) is not the basis of the relationship,” she said.

“It’s a friendship that is outside of conventional relationships.”

“Real relationships are not simple — they’re all complicated,” Gagne-Hawes said. “This takes it to the extreme.”

Gagne-Hawes is a co-founder (along with Johnson-Kennedy) of Revive the Red Tent, a production company dedicated to creating art that gives a voice to those who would otherwise not have one. She was drawn to the play because of the resonance she saw between it and Fairbanks.

“I saw dark, I saw substance abuse, I saw being trapped in certain circumstances, and complicated relationships that don’t make sense, and I thought it would resonate with Fairbanks,” she said.

Gagne-Hawes was at a conference last week where she heard filmmaker Andrew MacLean speak about reaction to “On The Ice,” his feature film that deals with controversial cultural issues in Barrow. One thing he said stood out to her.

“He said, ‘If it’s truthful, it helps. If it resonates, it helps,’” Gagne-Hawes said. “We all have pain, we all have moments of desperation. People will see themselves with these struggles.”

“Gruesome Playground Injuries” is recommended for ages 16 and older. There is coarse language, adult themes, smoking of herbal cigarettes and partial nudity.

Contact features editor Suzanna Caldwell at 459-7504.
IF YOU GO

What: Revive the Red Tent presents “Gruesome Playground Injuries”

When: 8 p.m. tonight, Saturday, Jan. 27 and 28; 2 p.m. Jan. 29

Where: Empress Theatre

Tickets: $20, $10 students

Information: Revive the Red Tent Productions on Facebook
http://www.newsminer.com/view/full_story/17242247/article-%E2%80%98Gruesome-Playground-Injuries%E2%80%99-addresse

Revive the Red Tent Productions Presents...

This is where I have been the last month.  Rehearsing. 

You may have wondered about the mention of the non-profit theatre company in the "about me" section... or,  you may not have even noticed.  But it is real.  We are not a 501c3, but we are recognized as a non profit organization by the state of Alaska. 

My breda and I started this theatre company our first year of college when neither of us were cast in the theatre department's productions and both of us wanted to do a show.  So we made it happen.  And now, 6 years later, both with full time jobs, we're continuing to make it happen.  We both double majored: English and Theatre for me, and History and Theatre for her.  Much of my creative energy has been moving more towards crafting and weaving and putting work into the homestead, but she continues to act in and direct shows at the local theatres, as well as investing all kinds of time and energy into RTRT.  Our Board of Directors just got a fourth member, so now I am only the Treasurer, not both the secretary and the treasurer.  I feel really good right now, for myself, just doing our taxes and keeping track of the bank account. 

Oh, and directing the occasional show.
This is the fourth show I've directed, and its been - is being - a wonderful experience.  It is a one act, two person production. 

"Gruesome Playground Injuries"  Director's notes.

I was drawn to this play because of its evocative treatment of the trauma we undergo as humans in relationships.  It is the story of two people who are so alone and yet who share an intense and visceral bond.  Though it is the story of a 30 year relationship between a man and a woman, it is not the story of a romance.  It is neither a failed romance nor does it have a happily ever after.  It is something different.  Doug says to Kayleen "I am you."  This is somehow more intensely true than it would be if these two characters shared a strictly romantic bond.  As we each go through our lives, we form relationships with ourselves and with the people in our lives.  This play asks us to examine what these relationships mean to us, and how they affect us through out our lives.  Those that are closest to us, with whom we are most intimate -whether sexually, romanitcally, platonically, intellectually, or spiritually - have the greatest ability to hurt us.  And with whom are we more intimate than with ourselves?

Both of these characters are injured in the play, internally and externally.  They hurt themselves and they hurt each other, each of them. And they search for healing, for themselves and for eachother.  While you may see cuts and blood and emotional pain, I encourage you to look deeper into the injuries and deeper into yourselves.  I see the injuries as metaphors for the deeper pain we experience and the pain we inflict on those around us.  I see the injuries as metaphors for the profound experience of living life in this joyful, hurting, messed up, beautiful world.  For as long as Kayleen and Dougie can feel pain, as long as they can hurt, they are experiencing themselves in the world.  They can feel, they are not numb.  And isn't that the glory of life?  That we can experience it?